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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Cheater Cloth

Have you ever used cheater cloth? I bought this fabric (Denyse Schmidt's Patchwork Promenade panel from her County Fair collection) years ago. I wanted a quilt by Denyse Schmidt and this was the closest I was going to get to it. Originally I was going to hand quilt it to make it look like it was a pieced top instead of just one big piece of fabric. As time went on and my quilting skills and confidence increased I found I could actually design and make my own quilt tops, so this stayed stashed away in the cupboard. Just before Grace was born I decided this would make a perfect picnic quilt. I've always liked the idea of a picnic quilt, but just couldn't bear the thought of the kids spilling food all over a quilt that I had spent weeks on. This was the perfect solution - quick, hardy (its a heavier weigh decorator cotton) and beautiful!

This quilt was so much fun to quilt! I just did random straightish/wobblyish lines vertically and horizontally, sewing at break-neck speed with wreckless abandon. And my machine goes pretty fast!

I even tried machine binding the edges. It worked okay, but the corners didn't catch all that well, so I had to finish it off with some hand stitching in a few spots. My sister, Amelia, just showed me a great technique to ensure perfect machine binding. I think she'll be posting a tutorial soon :)

We've already used it, and look it has sand all over it...

And fish and chips! I wasn't even a little bit precious about it :)

I finished this quilt before Grace was born but am only just getting around to posting about it now.

I think I'm going to take a little blogging break. Take your pick from the following reasons - my camera's battery is dead and I can't find the charger, Dane popped my camera's SD card into the back of the computer's CD reader, Sarah's about to start school and I want to spend some time with her, Grace is not sleeping well and, quite frankly, I'm exhausted. Once my big girl starts school in a couple of weeks I'll be back to show you what I've been working on. In the mean time, happy quilting!